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A Marketing Technique That Should've Been Reconsidered

by sunshine on February 27, 2017 - 4:21pm

The powerful impact of social media on our society has often been underestimated by most people. This has led our society to enormous social, political and economic problems. More precisely, the marketing world of social media left and still leaves a big impact on our daily lives. This advertisement was created by Protein World to promote their Weight Loss product collection. The sentence “Are You Beach Body Ready?” can lead the customer to interpret many different meanings. As for me, the image of the woman’s body on this advertisement makes me and probably most people who have seen it, conclude that this is the company’s perception of the ideal female “Beach Body”. Sexist and stereotypical advertisements like this one are posted all around the world almost every day and lead the population to experience all sorts of problems.

Sadly, this picture, which has probably been photo shopped, sends a message to all women that if you don’t look like this in a bikini, you are not ready to go to the beach. Furthermore, by choosing this woman for their advertisement, the people working in the marketing department for this company are sending a message and implying to women in our society this is the ideal female body. This advertisement can, and probably is, leading young teenage girls to grow up believing that this is the shape a woman should have in order to conform to social standards.

Many reasons should lead us as a society to be concerned about sexist and unrealistic advertisements such as this one. In fact, “proponents of sociocultural theory suggest that body dissatisfaction results from unrealistic ideals of attractiveness transmitted through the media” ( Hargreaves and Tiggemann Vol. 21 ). Moreover, “long term effects have been discovered of people who have fallen victim to faulty unrealistic images in the media and have suffered from issues such as: depression, self-imposed isolation, low self-esteem, feelings of inadequacy and alienation, eating disorders, and drug use” (Tkarrde, 2003). Not one single human being should feel the need to stop eating in order to look like the stereotypical woman in today’s ads. As described in Tkarrde’s point of view, people get so influenced by these ads that they even get depressed for the only reason that they desire something that is almost impossible to acquire. These body shapes are almost impossible to obtain through physical activity or through nutrition since most of them are manipulated by computer-generated imagery (www.beautyredefined.net). “One of the main strategies used to reinforce and normalize a distorted idea of “average” is media’s representation of women extremely thin either by consistent use of models and actresses that are underweight or extremely thin, or by making the models and actresses fit their idea of ideal thinness and beauty through digital manipulation both on screen through computer-generated imagery”(www.beautyredefined.net). With that being said, we should be concerned about these advertisements because it may lead women to starve themselves to a point where it becomes dangerously unhealthy or they will try to obtain a body which is simply unrealistic through many different horrible methods such bulimia. “Women are constantly held to this unrealistic standard of beauty. If they fail to attain it, they are led to feel guilty and ashamed” (Cortese 59). Do we really want our daughters growing up in a society where if their weight remains healthy, they’re not considered as “Beach Body” ready? Or, do we want them to keep obsessing over body and an appearance that simply doesn’t exist? Personally, I really believe it’s time for us to make a change and stop these stereotypes from appearing on marketing projects all around the world.

Most of these advertisements need to be reconsidered and changed because of all the negative impact they have on the population. Concerning this one in particular, I think that, first of all, the image of the woman in the bikini should be removed. This will allow women seeing this advertisement to create their own idea about what they consider to be the ideal beach body. Personally, I believe that by removing the image of the woman out of this marketing campaign, less stereotypes would be put on the ideal beach body, or simply on the ideal female body. In addition, with this removal, women will be likely to put much less pressure on themselves in order to change their body because they will not be exposed to an unrealistic female body. If all advertisers would take this type of approach in their advertisements, the percentage of women experiencing bulimia, low self-esteem and depression will be more likely to decrease.

In conclusion, the marketing world needs an enormous improvement concerning how they advertise their products and services. The way Protein World tries to connect and get the attention of their target market, which in that case are women, seems to me inappropriate and condescending. I personally find this advertisement insulting for women because it sets their mind on a fake illusion of what the ideal and typical female body looks like.